A house concert of Jewish organ music performed and explained by Dr. Yuval Rabin at his Jerusalem home

Dr, Yuval Rabin (courtesy YR)

 

Not every day does one attend a pipe organ concert in a private home, but this was indeed the case on September 6th 2022, with people gathering at the Jerusalem home of Yuval Rabin to hear a concert of Jewish organ music performed on the 21-stop, German-built organ in his home. 

As one mostly associates organ music with church buildings and repertoire, this seemed an atypical program for an instrument mostly found in churches. Dr. Rabin opened the event with an outline of the history of the organ both in the synagogue and in Jewish music in general. Many of us are familiar with the choral music of Polish-German composer Louis Lewandowski (1821–1894), much of it for mixed chorus, solo, and organ, written during his tenure as musical director at the Neue Synagoge in Berlin - appealing, highly melodic music composed in the strict four-part harmony of church music, but with many of the pieces based on ancient cantorial modal melodies.  Rabin included a number of Lewandowski's appealing organ pieces from "Fünf Fest-Präludien" Op. 37 and "Synagogen-Melodien" Op. 47, all brimming with colour, noble, festive (and choral) gestures and threaded with quotes from familiar synagogue melodies.

Born in Lvov, virtuoso concert pianist and conductor Julius Chajes (1910-1965) fled to Palestine, then settling in the USA in 1937 and making an enduring contribution to the music of American Jewry - to American Synagogue repertoire, largely in the Reform milieu, but also in many Conservative synagogues, as well as to the secular Jewish concert repertoire of his adopted country. The musical language of his "Prayer" for organ, based on a traditional melody by J. Neumann, is a testament to Chajes' extensive work with cantors when he served as musical director for the Jewish community in Detroit.

The program included organ works of three German-born Israeli composers. Conductor and singer Karel Salmon (1897-1974), settled in Palestine in 1933, becoming musical director of the Palestine Broadcasting Service (later, Kol Israel), also teaching at the Academy of Music in Jerusalem. His "Six Miniatures for Organ" constitute a fine example of the "Mediterranean style" period of Israeli music, merging the composer's European heritage with Middle Eastern-, Mediterranean- and Jewish folklore material. Rabin gave an articulate, vivid and intelligent reading of the small vignettes, each inspired by a specific source of traditional Jewish melody, bringing out Salmon's detailed treatment of each.

Yuval Rabin spoke of Paul Ben Haim's "Prelude" (1966) as based on the gesture of a Seufzer (sigh). The artist's performance of the small, multi-sectional piece gave rich and engaging expression to its moods and richly coloured soundscape. Composer, conductor, pianist and teacher Paul Ben-Haim (1897-1984), his musical palette also a mix of European styles and local orientalism, remains one of the greatest and most prolific of the founding fathers of Israeli music. 

A fine sample of the compositional style of Haim Alexander (1915-2012) was heard in Rabin's playing of "Meditations on a Yemenite Song", a movement from "The West-East Bridge", a work (and, indeed, its title) indicative of the composer's aim to create a national style with Middle Eastern- and folk-like styles, yet still remaining close to his European background, at the same time, staying in line with contemporary developments of music. Rabin coloured the free variations and their differing ideas and patterns by way of a variety of registers and daring forays, making for excellent listening. 

The program also included a work by Rabin himself - "Fantasia on Sabbath Zemirot" (songs sung around the table during the sabbath and on Jewish holidays.) A demanding and somewhat programmatic work, the songs emerge via a variety of textures, as Rabin engages in some canonic writing, his harmonies at times bordering on clusters; there are humorous and mysterious touches and moments of imposing organ timbres. Rabin's style is personal, appealing and certainly challenging to the player. His explanations throughout the evening made for lively discussion with the audience.

Born in Haifa, Israel in 1973, Rabin studied at the Dunie Weizmann Conservatory (Haifa), the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, the Musik Akademie der Stadt Basel and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Switzerland.) He participates in festivals and performs internationally with ensembles, orchestras and choirs. His CD recordings include “Organ Music from Israel'' and works of C.P.E Bach and Mendelssohn.

 

Works of Bach, Schoenberg and Brahms in Concert No.3 of the 2022 Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival

Dmitry Sitkovetsky (courtesy Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival)

 

Once again, the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival was here to provide music-lovers with late-summer enjoyment, its excitement and energy drawing large crowds and filling the auditorium of the Jerusalem International YMCA to capacity. The 25th Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival (artistic director: Elena Bashkirova) took place September 5th-10th, 2022. Arriving at the venue, one was greeted by Jerusalem's balmy evening breezes and the magical carillon sounds emanating from the YMCA bell tower, as Gaby Shefler entertained festival-goers with a selection of familiar melodies.

 

The Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival boasts its very own distinctive features. One is that it brings together musicians from all over the world - young artists performing on stage with more veteran musicians. Another is its concert programming, with each concert offering new- or seldom-performed works and, in some cases, offering a different slant on familiar pieces, all these alongside the canon of chamber music repertoire. Concert No.3 (September 7th) was no exception. It opened with six of J.S.Bach's Three-Part Inventions, BWV 787-801, as set for violin, viola and 'cello by Dmitry Sitkovetsky. Performing them were Sitkovetsky (violin), Hartmut Rohde (viola) and Xenia Jankovic on 'cello. So many of us have studied these 3-part keyboard Inventions (or Sinfonias) in our youth, then to revisit them later with a wider perspective. For the minor-key inventions, Sitkovetsky chose slow tempi, tempi that might not be effective on the harpsichord, but here, on strings, resulting in poetic, lyrical playing that gave prominence to each and every motif. As to the inventions in major keys, the trio members let down their hair to perform them with contrapuntal pizzazz, inviting the listener to follow how Bach plays out the subject matter in each. These perfectly-chiselled jewels, the very same notes that Bach had penned, but seen through the prism of the string player, made for a splendid opener to the concert. 

 

Arnold Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon Op.41 for narrator, string quartet and piano would not be a work often performed on these shores, if at all. Composed during World War II as a protest against tyranny, Lord Byron's poem castigating Napoleon served the composer in expressing his own feelings. An impelling and turbulent piece, rich in motifs and written in the manner of inflected speech (resembling Sprechstimme) Schoenberg makes several references to Beethoven. Conducted by Sitkovetsky, the artists displayed fine-tuned teamwork. Presenting the 12-tone score with feisty precision, the instrumentalists (Nathalia Milstein-piano, violinists Yamen Saadi and Mohamed Hiber, Hartmut Rohde-viola, Astrig Siranossian-'cello), together with narrator (baritone) Dietrich Henschel, brought out the work's compelling message, its sarcasm and scorn. Schoenberg had insisted that the narrator must have "the number of shades, essential to express one hundred and seventy kinds of derision, sarcasm, hatred, ridicule, contempt, condemnation, etc., which I have tried to portray in my music." Henschel did not disappoint, presenting the work's compelling message in a performance that was indeed gripping, resonant and genuinely theatrical.

 

These items were followed by three works of Johannes Brahms.  "Zwei Gesänge" Op.91, published 1884, had a strange genesis - to mend the marriage of violinist Joseph Joachim and wife mezzo-soprano Amalie Weiss (both musical partners of Brahms and personal friends), due to Joachim’s paranoid delusions about an affair he imagined Amalie was having with Fritz August Simrock, Brahms’ publisher. Performing the two songs at the Jerusalem concert were soprano Dorothea Röschmann, Razvan Popovici-viola and Sunwook Kim (piano), their beautifully balanced reading of “Gestillte Sehnsucht” (Longing at Rest, Rückert) and “Geistliches Wiegenlied” (Sacred Lullaby, Geibel) - both songs sharing the image of wind in trees, calming in the first and alarming in the second - sensitive, dynamic and evocative. With fine-sculpted musical gestures, Popovici constantly reached out to interact with Röschmann's poignant singing and beauty of timbre. 

 

In the late summer months of 1865, having left Vienna for a working vacation in Baden, near the Black Forest, Brahms rented an apartment with mountain views and began to imagine the Horn Trio while walking in the woods. His mother, Christiane, had died the previous February in Hamburg. The Trio in E-flat major for horn, violin and piano Op.40 brings together three instruments the composer had played as a young man. (Despite his great love for the instrument, Brahms only engaged the horn in one chamber music work.)  What quickly became clear at the Jerusalem concert was how wholly and naturally the three young outstanding artists - Ben Goldscheider-horn, Clara Jumi-Kang-violin and Nathalia Milstein - had delved into the musical and emotional meaning of this nostalgic and strangely modern piece, identifying with its controlled sentimentality, its agitated and impetuous moments, its urgent gestures, elegiac expressiveness and Romantic warmth. Ben Goldscheider wields the unforgiving horn with easeful mastery and richness of timbre. 

 

The event signed out with Brahms' Piano Quintet in F-minor Op.34, a dark, mighty work of huge scope, often considered to be Brahms' great chamber music epic, though completed when he was only thirty-one. Performing it here were violinists Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Mohamad Hiber, Gérard Caussé-viola, Tim Park-'cello and Sunwook Kim-piano. With both piano and strings playing an equally important role throughout this work, the artists created the whole-of-Brahms emotional journey in playing that was personal, lyrical, mysterious, fresh and with some subtly-flexed touches. 

Taking place in Tel Aviv for the second year running, the 2022 Abu Ghosh Festival (October 11th-13th) will offer a rich selection of musical events

Vocapella Limburg (photo: Florian Lill)

                                               

As in 2021, the upcoming Abu Ghosh Festival will once again be held in Tel Aviv, taking place from October 11th to 13th 2022.  Popular from the 1950s as an annual event, the festival's organization was taken over in 1992 by music-lover Gershon Cohen and choral conductor Hanna Tzur, the revamped festival then happening twice a year. Attended by music-lovers from far and wide, people have been flocking to the two Abu Ghosh churches to hear the festival concerts, also enjoying the craft stalls, outdoor events and the relaxed, holiday atmosphere. As the Kiryat Yearim Church is presently undergoing renovation, the Sukkot Festival will take place at the Yitzhak Rabin Centre in Tel Aviv. The Rabin Centre, located on a hill, boasts commanding panoramic views of the Yarkon Park and of the city of Tel Aviv, with beautiful grounds and three concert venues – the Leah Rabin Hall, the Round Hall and the Triguboff Gardens nestling in the spectacular grounds. As of 2021, a new team has taken over the running of the festival, most of its members active on the Israeli music scene - Amit Tiefenbrunn - music director, Tessa Harari - management and production, Alon Harari - production coordinator and Yeela Avital - participation director and fundraising. The team has set its sights at creating a multi-sensory cultural experience with music at its core, providing listeners with events of diverse musical styles - western classical music, regional-, ethnic-, folk-, jazz- and classical Israeli music. 

 

Here's a question: how do you prefer your concert program? Strictly classical? If so, you might like to attend Concert No.6: “Bach. Bach? Bach!”- the best of Bach’s Motets, Mass and Concerto for 2 flutes - featuring the Israeli Vocal Ensemble and the Barrocade Ensemble. Or Concert no.11: “Vivaldi - The Four Seasons/Mozart-Exultate Jubilate” with violinist Roi Shiloah and soprano Veronica Brook. Or two concerts introducing the festival's overseas guest choir - Concert no.12 “Motets and Madrigals-past to present'' and Concert no.15, “Shining Dreams'', both performed by Vocapella Limburg, an award-winning male choir from Belgium. In “Romantic Psalms”, Concert No.16, the Tel Aviv Chamber Choir and soloists, directed by Michael Shani, will present an all-Psalm program.  "The Reign of Love - Rome and Venice’s Baroque Opera Grandeur” (Concert No.20) will offer festival-goers a glimpse into some 17th- and 18th century Italian aristocratic families, their composers and operas of the time. 

 

But let's say the festival atmosphere tempts you to move “outside the box” and indulge in a little mixing of styles, you might just choose to hear “Mediterranean Sensuality” (Concert no.3), performed by the Mezzo Ensemble, an encounter between songs and dances of 17th century Europe and Greek music of the 20th century. “Carmen’s Jazz Vibe” (Concert No.4) promises a daring and electrifying program, in which soprano Daniela Skorka joins the Guy Mintus Trio. "La Folia" (Concert No.10) will present the concept of insanity as expressed in both early- and contemporary music. For this event, Inbar Solomon (recorders), Yizhar Karshon (harpsichord) and Amit Tiefenbrunn (viola da gamba) will be joined by choreographer/dancer Nirit Rakhbi. In a “Magical Mystery Tour” (Concert No.13), English Baroque music, Shakespearean music, early Celtic music and Italian opera will come together as performed by Sunita Stanislav (Scottish harp), Uri Schleifer (Irish fiddle), Genevieve Blanchard (Baroque flute) and soprano Yeela Avital.

 

Festival-goers can also choose from music of different countries and ethnic styles, from the toe-tapping music of Argentina in “Concertango - 100 Years of Tango from Gardell to Piazzolla" (Concert No.2) or traditional Celtic and Jewish music, gypsy rhythms and a touch of jazz improvisation, performed by the Tzalool Duo (Concert No.5). East meets west in an "Ethnic Celebration" (Concert No.7), a program that includes Bartok's "Romanian Folk Dances", but also Turkish, Armenian, and Israeli Music, as performed by the Galilee Ensemble. No new faces to Israeli audiences, members of the Hortus Musicus Ensemble (artistic director – Andres Mustonen) will take listeners on a whirlwind tour of the Balkans and the Orient. For those of us who are partial to American country music - getting a buzz from the songs of Bob Dylan, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash - the "Jacks of Diamond" players and vocalists will fit the bill with a "Folk, Bluegrass and Country Celebration" (Concert No.14). For people transported by the music of such greats as Mercedes Sosa, Dorival Caymmi, Villa-Lobos and Ariel Ramirez, Daniela Skorka and guitarist Eyal Leber will perform popular songs from Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Chile in “Latin-American Classics'' (Concert No,17). “Passion and Emotion” (Concert No.18), featuring singers Yasmin Levy and Yaniv D’Or with Ensemble Naya, will stir up emotions in an evening of Ladino and Spanish music, not to mention the wild, extreme sentiments of love, injustice, sadness and heartache to be experienced in “Fuego y Tierra” (Fire and Earth) (Concert No.19), a traditional Flamenco performance of song, guitar and dance.

 

And, no less important, festival-goers will have an opportunity to hear some of Israel's young, up-and-coming choral singers. Three of Israel's prominent youth choirs can be heard performing a wide variety of choral repertoire in “The Next Generation” (Concert No.8).

 

Winding up the 2022 Abu Ghosh Festival, the Rockberry Sisters, a unique all-female cover band, will indeed rock listeners into reliving the nostalgia of the “50’s and 60’s Greatest Hits” with songs of the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, The Monkeys, The Supremes, Elvis, The Beach Boys, and many more. The 2022 Abu Ghosh Festival also promises outdoor stalls selling up-market arts and crafts.

 

Ticket reservations:  https://www.goshow.co.il/pages/minisite/234